Getting Started: Using Your Test Results

Are you new to Email on Acid? If so, then let’s walk through the process of accessing, analyzing and troubleshooting issues in your email test results.

We’ve already given you the lowdown on how to run a test, but now we are going to get into the nitty-gritty of how to navigate through your test results and all the supporting features you can leverage if you run into coding discrepancies.

Accessing Your Test Results

So you’ve run your email test, now what? You can view your test results one of two ways. The first way to access your tests is by logging into your account and accessing your results through the Results Inbox.

You will see all of your tests run within the last 30 days in your results inbox. The list is sorted from newest (top) to oldest (bottom). Click on the subject of the test you want to view in the preview pane.

Once you click on the subject you will see the preview pane pop up from the bottom right. From here, you can click on any thumbnail to go directly into your test results.

Click on any result thumbnail to jump straight into viewing your results. You also have the ability to share your test results, inline your CSS, download your screenshots and preview the email you tested directly from this preview pane.

The other way to access your email previews is in your own personal inbox through the autoprocess testing method. If you are running an autoprocess test, you’ll get an email every time you create a new test. We send the email 10 minutes after the test is started. Just click on a thumbnail, or the button at the bottom of the screen, and we’ll take you to the “Shared” results for that test. Because these are the shared results, you won’t even need to log in to view them! Below is an example of your test results being delivered to your inbox. Please note that shared results don’t have all of the features you’ll see when logged in.

If you aren’t getting your test results delivered to your personal inbox, click here to ensure you have this feature enabled.

Now that you know where your tests are, let’s get into how you can move around from preview to preview within your test results.

Navigating Through Your Previews

The easiest way to peruse through your different previews is with your arrow keys! Simply press the left arrow key to go to the previous preview and the right arrow key to jump forward to the next one.

If you have a specific client you want to dive into, hover your mouse over the right navigation bar and you’ll see a full list of the clients and devices you tested on. From the nav bar, click on the appropriate client. Use the pin icon to make the right navigation bar stay expanded.

Not seeing a client you wanted to test on in your results? This can happen if a particular client is not checked in your email client default settings. Click here to get instructions on accessing and editing your default clients.

On top of being able to sift through all your test results with ease, we also provide you with vertical AND horizontal mobile views. Drag, slide, and rotate your email just like you would when viewing it in the actual device – no paging, no repeating headers! That’s 4 screen captures for each rotating device:

Vertical with images enabled (default)

Vertical with image blocking

Horizontal with images enabled

Horizontal with image blocking

Once you think all your test results are looking A-OK, you can share your results easily with your colleagues. Simply click “Share” and copy the link. Send it out to collaborate with your team.

Validating Your Images and Links

One thing you will notice when you’re thumbing through our previews is that none of your links or images are clickable. This is because we return a screenshot of exactly what your email looks like within each inbox. That doesn’t mean, though, that you have to cross your fingers and hope all your links and images are working.

To check all the links and images within your email, click the “URL Validation” tab.

You will see validation and reputation information for each hyperlink and image. This means you can see if any links resolved with error messages or if any link domains are blacklisted. Check out a sample below:

All your URLs will be individually listed below so you can identify if any URL is causing a problem. Including URLs that are blacklisted in your email can cause it to be rejected by spam filters.

Now that we’ve covered how and where to view your tests, let’s talk about the steps you can take when you run into issues.

Troubleshooting Issues in Your Code

All email clients use different rendering engines to display an email. That’s why your email could look beautiful in one client, but not in another (or you could’ve just made a coding faux pas, don’t fret it happens to the best of us). Luckily, we’re here to help you navigate through the email trenches when disasters do occur. When you see issues with your previews, we have a couple steps you can take to troubleshoot and resolve your issues – fast!

Step 1: Locate and note the email clients that are looking funky.

When you are scrolling through your previews, note which clients are having rendering issues. This way you can easily isolate the clients when it is time to troubleshoot.

We offer a code analysis for every client and device. Simply click on the “Code Analysis Summary” tab.

If you fix the errors laid out in the code analysis tab and you are still seeing the same problems, it’s time for you to dive into our library of coding tricks.

Step 3: Leverage our Developer Tools.

Since 2008 we’ve documented tons of quirky nuances that might be encountered when developing your HTML email. Details and work-a-round solutions are provided for each individual client, all from within your test result window!

To access tips & tricks for each individual client, make sure you are in the correct preview and click on the “</>” button located to the left of every screenshot. In the example below, we are in AOL Chrome (Mac) so when we click on the Tips & Tricks tab, we see workarounds specifically related to AOL.

Step 4: Jump on our blog or post in our forum!

Our platform is not the only place to go if you have coding questions. Over the years we have built up a killer community of email marketers, coders and designers that live and breathe email. Blog comments and forum posts offer an interactive place to go and figuratively stand around the water cooler talking about email code and quirky clients.

If you still cannot find a fix for your particular problem, post your issue (with an example of the code) in our forum and our community will take note and help you out.

Step 5: Visit our Email Design Community Page.

Email design can be incredibly frustrating. If you have coding questions you just can’t seem to figure out, sometimes it’s best to ask an expert. That’s why we compiled a list of our most tried and trusted email developers, designers and coders from our community.

Check out our group of rock stars that have received our Email on Acid Stamp of Approval and are absolutely killing it with email. If you’re stumped, email your coding question (with the code attached if possible) to one of these experts and they may be able to help you. Just remember that they’re volunteers!

Other Tools: Resubmit your screenshot.

Every now and then, a “stitching” issue can occur when we are creating your previews. A stitching issue could cut off your email, slice through the middle of your image or have the email be spliced and stitched back together in an unnatural manner. If you see part of an image missing, it’s either because the containing element is too small, or because a stitching issue occurred. Check out an example of an email that fell victim to minor stitching issues below:

To resubmit your screenshot, ensure you are in the preview that is having stitching issues and find the “Resubmit Screenshot” button to the left of the screenshot. It looks like a counterclockwise arrow.

Do note, you can only reprocess a client screenshot one time. Using this feature resubmits the exact same code, so this is not a way to test changes. If you are still seeing rendering issues, try the steps laid out above.

Test and Test Again

After you’ve found a fix for your coding issues, just send another test through our system to make sure that it did in fact work, and that it did not cause an issue in any other email client. Email testing is an iterative process, and every issue you fix will bring you one step closer to the perfect email. Good luck, and happy testing!

Got questions? We have answers!

We know what a pain email testing is and we hope our pre-send tools are making this less of a headache. If there are ways we can improve, let us know, we’re only an email or a phone call away.